During various manufacturing or other processes, it may be necessary to install a threaded fastener into a like-threaded receiving aperture. In some cases, the threaded fastener may need to be realigned with the receiving aperture following its initial placement in a fastener driving element due to some type of movement or other cause of misalignment between the threaded fastener and the threaded receiving hole. In this case, it may be desirable or necessary to retract the fastener driving element or some other portion of a corresponding fastener driving mechanism so that the threaded fastener may be realigned and then properly installed.
One exemplary operation where such a fastener installation process is required involves installing a vehicle suspension to a vehicle body. In a known embodiment, a pallet supports the suspension in the correct position relative to the body and then the suspension is fastened to the body via several bolts. A machine is used to lift the pallet and hold the pallet in a proper installation position. The machine includes a number of nut runners and corresponding offset nut runner gear boxes. Once the pallet is properly positioned, the nut runners extend upward to engage the nut runner gearboxes, which are subsequently driven by the nut runners.
The gearboxes each include a socket on an opposite side from the side that the nut runners engage. A bolt is placed into each of these sockets prior to the raising of the pallet into the installation position. In some cases, one or more of the bolts may be knocked out of position in between the time the bolts are loaded into the sockets and the time the pallet is raised. In such a case, the now misaligned bolt(s) will need to be realigned.
In light of this problem, each socket of the known suspension installation machine contains a spring-loaded mechanism that allows the associated socket to be moved downward in order to create sufficient space for an operator to realign mis-set or misaligned bolts in the socket. This downward movability of the sockets is necessary because the suspension is far too heavy to be lifted by an operator. Hence, the socket needs to be moved downward in order to create sufficient bolt realignment space.
Because the known design locates the spring-loaded mechanisms in/on the socket and above the associated gearboxes, the spring-loaded mechanisms are compressed every machine cycle upon extension of the nut runners. This results in a high cost and low reliability, which is also compounded by the number of overall parts involved.
Therefore, it can be understood that an improved device that allows for the realignment of a misaligned bolt prior to installation would be advantageous. The design of the present invention eliminates the complexity and shortcomings of the known device through the use of a novel socket design and through relocation of the spring mechanism away from the socket and along the bottom of the gearbox.